Otl Aicher's designs
for the 1972 Munich Olympics are one of the high points of iconic
graphic design. Beautiful spare figures on a simple grid that
depict human activity with amazing dynamism.
The height of
Olympic
graphics.

The recent much-lampooned
Homeland Security graphics
echo these designs and are beautiful in their own right.
The images are more personalized, with clothes and hair. And yet they
seem even more inhuman. And while they attempt to depict more
dynamism, with arrows and cartoon vignettes, they seem more static
than the Aicher designs.